LI) 



(JALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY 



propagated by slips or the grai'L never present 

 this phenomenon. We never find it in the jas- 

 mine, the horteusia, nor in any of those exotics 

 which in our climate yield, no seed. Bat they 

 are certainly cultivated with as much care as 

 roses, hyacinths, or carnations ; but they never 

 present the caprices of these beautiful varieties, 

 which reappear every day in our gardens under 

 new forms and with a mixture of the most charm- 

 ing colors. The error of these cultivators has 

 been still more extraordinary iu regard to steril- 

 ity of plants, which they have attributed to the 

 mode of propagation by slips or by layers. All 

 these opinions could result only from erroneous 

 reasoning. 



TVc have already seen that having observed 

 that plots of ground were covered with choice va- 

 rieties while the woods were full only of wild ones 

 it was inferred that it was culture which had 

 changed the savage varieties to fine ones, so that 

 these last are now called domesticated varieties. 

 In this case of the sterile plants having ob- 

 served that they were multiplied only by the 

 slip and the layer, it has been inferred that it 

 was the mode of propagation which effected in 

 the plant subjected to this operation for several 

 generations, the insensibly gradual los.s of its 

 stamens and pistils, and finally produced sterility. 

 Here it is easy to see the effect has been taken tor 

 the cause. These plants have been considered 

 sterile because propagated by the cuttings, where- 

 as the contrary is true, and they are propagated by 

 the cuttings because they are themselves sterile ; 

 otherwise" it would follow that all plants multi- 

 plied by the slip would be wterile, which is not 

 the case. Examples might be given in abun- 

 dance of plants bearing fertile seeds, which have 

 long been multiplied by the cuttings, as the olive 

 and the grape ; and a great number of superior 

 varieties'are produced by the slip only to keep 

 them from degenerating. 



But the most conclusive proof of the futility of 

 this belief is the fact that these plants of sterile 

 flowers all have their type, which is not sterile, 

 and whose seeds have probably given the sterile 

 variety which has been multiplied by cuttings. 

 Indeed, we sometimes find this variety in the 

 woods, where nature certainly ha? used no graft- 

 ing knife, as, for instance, in the sterile snowball 

 (viburnum opulus sterilis) beside the viburnum 

 opulus or snowball of fruitful flower. 



I shall not occupy my time in discussion upon 

 the influence of infusions of sugary substances 

 and other similar processes by which all the an- 

 cient writers pretend to change the taste and 

 color of fruits ; all these notions are now relega- 

 ted to the books on agriculture of the seventeenth 

 century, and there is no cultivator, however lit- 

 tle enlightened, who is not convinced of their 

 nselessness. 



Besides, these errors cannot but disappear from 

 the moment that we arc convinced that nutrition 

 (by which means the cultivation of the soil acts 

 upon plants or trees,) influences only their sim- 

 ple developments, but that forms, colors, proper- 

 tics, can only be changed by the seed. 



Such is the march of nature in all the chain of 

 organized beingo. Generations vary infinitely, 

 but individuals never change. The negro and 

 the white man give rir-e to numerous mulattoes. 



but the negro transported to the eternal snows of 

 the North will suffer no change any more than 

 will the white man under the burning sun of Af- 

 rica. The giant will procure his stature amid the 

 most cruel want, and the dwarf will never change 

 his proportions, though supplied with the most 

 nourishing food. Nature has determined the 

 forms of all beings ; she has fixed the principles 

 of their organization iu the embryo, and nothing 

 can alter them. They resist every force that sur- 

 rounds them, and ever preserve, amid the contin- 

 ual variation of nourishment and soil, the original 

 impress received from the hand of Nature. 



ART. V. The reproduction of pltinl* by Iliczecti. 



The seed is the only source of varieties in vege- 

 tables. It is only by this means that nature ef- 

 fects those wonderful transformations every day 

 witnessed, but too little understood. The major- 

 ity of cultivators acknowledge this fact ; and even 

 those who attribute beautiful varieties to culture 

 also agree that many are furnished by the seed. 



Wo propose, by the following experiments TO 

 corded by a French naturalist of great experi- 

 ence, to show the results of reproduction by seed. 



Experiment L I sowed, during several years, 

 seeds of the china orange (citrus aurantium si- 

 neme\ of a fine shining skin. I always obtained 

 sweet orange trees, of which a part bore oranges 

 of a thick, rough skin, and a part beautiful fruit 

 of a skin still finer than the original which fur- 

 nished the seed. The same thing occurred in the 

 sowing of ordinary oranges of thick and rough 

 skin there grew up several trees of beautiful 

 fruit, and one stock, whose leaves were like 

 hells in shape, but the fruit very ordinary and 

 seeds few, and even those very poor. 



I made the same experiment with the peach 

 tree ; seeds from peaches borne on the same tree 

 gave several varieties, for tho most part of ordi- 

 nary fruit, but a few finer than the original 

 planted ; but the stones never gave a cling-stono 

 peach, nor a cling-stone tho ordinary fruit. 



Tho almond gave the same result. Sweet al- 

 monds produced only sweet almond trees. There 

 was some difference'in the hardness of the shell, 

 but I never obtained a single bitter almond. 



Experiment II. I sowed seeds of the red 

 orange (citrus aurantium nncnse^hwrocJiuntwum, 

 fructu sanguined). The trees which came from 

 these produced only ordinary fruit of orange 

 color. 



Experiment III. I sowed lemon seeds taken 

 'from fruit gathered in a garden where lemon and 

 citron trees grew together, and obtained many 

 trees, whose fruit presented a series of varieties, 

 from the lemon to the poncire, but the larger part 

 of them were simple lemons. Those having the 

 characteristics of the poncire produced no seeds. 



Experiment IV. During a long series of years 

 I sowed seeds of the sweet orange, sometimes 

 taken from seedlings, sometimes from seedlings 

 grafted on a sour orange stock or a lemon stock, 

 but always obtained sweet oranges. This result 

 is confirmed by all tho gardeners of Finale (a 

 small town in the north of Italy) for more than 

 sixty years. There is no oxample of a sow 

 orange produced from a sweet seed, nor of M 

 sweet orange produced from a sour seed. 



